101-471: Mullum Malarum ( transl. 'The Thorn and the Flower' or 'Even a Thorn Will Bloom' ; pronounced [muɭɭum maɭaɾum] ) is a 1978 Indian Tamil -language drama film written and directed by Mahendran . Produced by Venu Chettiar and V. Mohan, the film stars Rajinikanth , Sarath Babu , Jayalaxmi and Shoba . It marks Mahendran's directorial debut and is partly based on Uma Chandran's novel of
202-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
303-404: A montage after the actor performed a line or two. During the filming of the climax where Kali lets Kumaran marry Valli despite their enmity, Sarath Babu disputed the part where Kali professes to still dislike Kumaran, leading him to storm off the set. When he was brought back by the producer, he tempestuously confronted Mahendran, who informed him that Kali dislikes Kumaran till the end. He offered
404-480: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
505-740: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
606-461: A breakthrough for Rajinikanth as an actor and a milestone of Tamil cinema for focusing prominently on visuals and realism without the formulaic Tamil cinema conventions that Mahendran disliked. He continued following this style in all his later films. The film's success inspired a Malayalam remake titled Venalil Oru Mazha in 1979, a Telugu remake titled Seethamma Pelli in 1984, and a Hindi version titled Pyari Behna in 1985. Orphaned at
707-483: A commercial success, with a theatrical run of over 100 days. Chettiar later apologised to Mahendran, who in turn thanked him for letting him make the film. After watching the film and being impressed with Rajinikanth's performance, his mentor, director K. Balachander wrote in a letter of appreciation that he was proud to have introduced him as an actor in Tamil cinema. Balachander's letter has been described by Sify as Rajinikanth's "most prized moment and possession". It
808-511: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
909-535: A language called Badaga . The name Badaga, meaning 'northerner', comes from Old Kannada Badagana , meaning 'north.'According to the Badaga oral tradition, their ancestors were presumed to be Vokkaligas who migrated from the plains of Mysore to avoid Muslim persecution. According to American anthropologist Paul Hockings, whose research on the Badagas spans nearly six decades, "the (Badaga) tribe despite its sketchy history
1010-417: A melodramatic brother-sister film like Pasamalar (1961), Mahendran refrained from disclosing to him that what he envisioned was radically different, with more focus on visuals than dramatics. The film marked Mahendran's directorial debut, with Chettiar and V. Mohan producing it. Ramasamy was signed as the art director , and D. Vasu as the editor. Ramachandra Babu declined when approached by Mahendran to be
1111-500: A nearby canal's bank, Valli meets a young woman, Manga, who, along with her mother, has arrived from a drought-stricken town, Ilaiyangudi . The mother is looking for work, and both women are hungry—Manga ravenously so, a fondness for food becoming one of her primary characteristics. Valli feeds and shelters them for the night, and asks Kali about allowing them to use the vacant house next door. Meanwhile, Kali roughs up his fellow employees whom he suspects of snitching on him to Kumaran. Kali
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#17328919917401212-406: A new trend in Tamil cinema with Mullum Malarum . Ramachandran stated that Mahendran had reached a milestone beyond expectations. He added that Mahendran demonstrated clearly that cinema is a "visual medium". Ramachandran commented that the depiction of brother-sister relationships in film up to this point were full of dramatics, even in his own, but Mullum Malarum stood apart in its realism. He said
1313-591: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
1414-650: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
1515-512: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
1616-457: A portrayal of a turbulent illiterate worker with a blind passion for his sister". The reviewer also praised the performances of Shoba and Jayalaxmi, called Balu Mahendra's camera work a "feast for the eyes", and Ilaiyaraaja's melodies "delicious". The critic was disappointed of the film's first half for moving at a "leisurely pace", but said the second half was "eventful". The Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan , in its 3 September 1978 review, applauded
1717-439: A scene set before "Senthazham Poovil" but Chettiar, discontent with the budget escalating , refused to finance it until he was won over by Haasan who financed the scene, and filming was completed. Mullum Malarum 's final reel length was 3,915.46 metres (12,846.0 ft). Film critic Naman Ramachandran likened Kali's relationship with Valli to how flowers need thorns for protection. According to critic Baradwaj Rangan ,
1818-616: A sentence in English. To give an example, the word pōkamuṭiyātavarkaḷukkāka (போகமுடியாதவர்களுக்காக) means "for the sake of those who cannot go" and consists of the following morphemes : போக pōka go முடி muṭi accomplish Badagas The Badagas are an ethno-linguistic community living in the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu , India. Throughout the district the Badugas live in nearly 400 villages, called Hattis. The Badagas speak
1919-620: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
2020-595: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
2121-662: A success with a theatrical run of over 100 days. The film received praise primarily for Rajinikanth's performance, Balu Mahendra's cinematography, Ilaiyaraaja's music, Mahendran's writing and establishing Tamil cinema as a "visual medium". It won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil , the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film and Rajinikanth won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his performance. Mullum Malarum became
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#17328919917402222-458: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
2323-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
2424-406: A young age, Kali and his sister Valli grew up on the streets and were street performers . Kali played the drums and Valli perched herself atop a pole balanced by an older boy. Kali frequently gets angry at people whom he thinks lack empathy for the socially or financially deprived. As adults, the siblings live in a hilltop village where Kali works for a powerhouse in the valley below. From a shed in
2525-493: Is Devva Habba. Devva Habba provides significant insights into the origin of Badugas. They have certain rules and regulations to be followed in implementing their cultural rituals from the birth of a child and follows through functions like puberty, marriage, naming ceremony, seventh-month pregnancy, housewarming, and finally in death. They worship their seven founding ancestors under the name Hethappa or Hetha. During time of early 1900s they were known to swear very solemn oaths by
2626-622: Is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
2727-482: Is amputated at a city hospital. As a result, Kumaran regretfully fires Kali since he can no longer perform his job adequately with one arm. At Valli's prompting, Kali and Manga agree to marry; they have a simple wedding ceremony held at the local temple. Kumaran attends and brings a present of cash, which Kali rejects, but Manga accepts. Kumaran becomes attracted to Valli. After determining her willingness for marriage, he requests permission from Kali who asks him to return
2828-408: Is amputated, he feels helpless and emasculated, and Kumaran becomes an easy target. Kali refuses to see the benefits of his sister marrying a wealthy and educated man, even when Manga asks for his consent, but sees the error of his ways when Valli abandons her wedding party to join her brother: "My sister has shown all of you that I am the most important person in her life. I need only that happiness for
2929-575: Is as indigenous to the Nilgiris as the English are to Britain." They claim to come from seven siblings living in the Thalaimalai Hills . After they fled from a Muslim ruler who tried to rape their sister, they settled in different parts of the Nilgiris. The second brother, Hethappa, was working outside when two Todas raped his wife and took his goods. He sought the aid of two Bayaluru, who agreed to help him if they married his two daughters. They killed
3030-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
3131-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
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3232-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
3333-501: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
3434-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
3535-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
3636-419: Is given a final warning by Kumaran as a prelude to serious disciplinary action. While Kali is at work, Manga appears, picks up his watch and teasingly declares she will run away with it. A chase ensues, taking them through the woods and into the river. Waist-deep in the water, Kali retrieves the watch and rushes back to the shed. During his absence, a child living in the valley has needed medical attention. After
3737-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
3838-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
3939-577: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
4040-586: Is responsible for his sister's welfare. Unlike Bairavi , the siblings in Mullum Malarum are not separated; this leads Kali's protectiveness of Valli to the brink of obsession. Ramachandran regarded egotism as one of Mullum Malarum 's central themes, identifying Kali as the alpha male of his community. According to an article published in Cinema Vision India , the film stresses "that people change—and they must". Ramachandran noted that when Kali's arm
4141-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
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4242-772: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
4343-458: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
4444-584: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
4545-486: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
4646-499: The Bottle ", composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja for Mankatha (2011). The song's lyrics also inspired the title of a 2021 film Raame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum . For the Telugu -dubbed soundtrack Mullu Puvvu , L. Vaidyanathan composed two original tracks, apart from dubbing three of Ilaiyaraaja's compositions from the original soundtrack. Mullum Malarum was released on 15 August 1978. As
4747-476: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
4848-469: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
4949-546: The Sri Mariamman temple. For this they bathed, brought coconut and fruit, and killed an animal. The head they put on the step of the shrine, and from seven feet off they would walk to the temple step and put out the light that was shining in front of the idol. Even the Britisher judges, in court, would also abide by this practice and occasionally send witnesses to do this ritual along with a Court official to ensure they were telling
5050-497: The Sringeri shooting schedule. Once while passing through Pondicherry , Mahendran witnessed a game of Uriyadi , which inspired him to include two Uriyadi scenes in the film which were not originally part of the script. Mahendran also decided to characterise Manga ( Jayalaxmi ) as a "meen paithiyam" (meaning a "foodie who loves fish") after being inspired by Sringeri's marine environment. Balu Mahendra stated that he avoided incorporating
5151-585: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
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#17328919917405252-459: The Tamil magazine Kalki , it won the first prize in Kalki ' s novel competition for the magazine's silver jubilee in 1966. While reading the novel, Mahendran was attracted by the protagonist Kali's job as a winch operator and his highly self-respecting character. He read until the chapter where Kali loses his arm to a tiger, and developed the screenplay completely according to his own wish. Unlike
5353-673: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
5454-563: The Todas, and the inhabitants of the village at the time claimed descent from the Bayalurus and Badaga daughters. Throughout the district the Badagas live in nearly 400 villages, called Hattis . Thundu (a white piece of cloth) and Seeley forms an integral part of the attire of the Badugu women. Badugas marry within their community and follow their own marriage traditions. Their important festival
5555-561: The actor's character in Ranjith's Kabali (2016) was influenced by Kali in Mullum Malarum . The film's score has been regarded as one of the best of Ilaiyaraaja's career by commentators; the songs "Senthazham Poovil" and "Raman Aandalum" in particular, remain hugely popular. The latter was used in the climax sequence of Petta . Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
5656-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
5757-431: The cinematographer, and Ashok Kumar , whom Ramachandra Babu suggested, could not accept to work on the film. Mahendran was unable to find a worthy cinematographer until actor Kamal Haasan introduced him to Balu Mahendra , who agreed to work on the film, making his debut in Tamil cinema. Haasan worked as a production manager on the film. After the release of Aadu Puli Attam , Mahendran wanted Rajinikanth , who portrayed
5858-670: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
5959-936: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
6060-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
6161-634: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
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#17328919917406262-527: The docile Valli and the garrulous Manga in Mullum Malarum as examples. Regarding this, Mahendran said, "I only show them as they are in real life". According to film historian Yves Thoraval , Mullum Malarum explores "the extreme Oedipal possessiveness of a married brother for his younger sister". Thoraval said this was a recurring theme in Indian films starting with Bahen in 1941. Ramachandran noted that Kali, like Rajinikanth's character in Bairavi (1978),
6363-495: The dubbed Telugu version in 1979) and in Hindi as Pyari Behna (1985). "Kali" (alternatively, Kaali) became Rajinikanth's most-frequent onscreen name; his characters in Kaali (1980), Kai Kodukkum Kai (1984) and Petta (2019) also shared that name. In October 2015, director Pa. Ranjith said that Rajinikanth's characterisation in Mullum Malarum was a "lesson" of sorts for him, and
6464-567: The emergency alarm at the shed has rung for several minutes, a passerby steps in to operate the winch. The child is transported back in the trolley and dispatched to a hospital. The following day, Kumaran suspends Kali from his job for ten days for gross misconduct. That evening, Kali goes to the nearby Mullimalai to assuage his anger at Kumaran among the Badagas , joining them in singing and dancing. While staggering back home drunk, Kali passes out on an unlit street. A truck drives over his left arm, which
6565-521: The families and the women". In December 2013, The Times of India said that with this film, Rajinikanth "dispelled whatever doubts remained about his acting ability". Rajinikanth himself considers Mullum Malarum one of his five most favourite films and Mahendran his favourite director. Mullum Malarum was remade in Malayalam as Venalil Oru Mazha in 1979, in Telugu as Seethamma Pelli in 1984 (despite
6666-403: The film predominantly using natural light. According to Mahendran, Chettiar never arrived at the shooting spot; he expected a melodramatic, dialogue-heavy film, and would have shelved the project had he known about Mahendran's filmmaking style. Sarath Babu was originally supposed to lip sync the full "Senthazham Poovil" scene, picturised on Kumaran and Valli, but Mahendra and Mahendran agreed on
6767-556: The film's antagonist, to act as the male lead in his directorial debut film. Though Chettiar remonstrated against the actor's suitability for the role due to his dark skin and typecasting as a villain, he reluctantly capitulated after Mahendran intransigently declared that he could not possibly direct the film without him, believing him to be tailor-made for the part. After directing the Kannada film Kokila (1977), Balu Mahendra wanted its lead actress Shoba to act in his first Tamil film. She
6868-432: The film's commercial performance during its first few weeks was poor, both Mahendran and Rajinikanth summoned Chettiar to further publicise the film to improve its revenues. He declined, caustically replying that an unsuccessful film needs no publicity, and a successful film requires no publicity. During its third or fourth week of release, positive magazine reviews and favourable word of mouth spread; Mullum Malarum became
6969-440: The final scene was new not only to Tamil cinema but also to Indian cinema. Ramachandran lauded Rajinikanth's realistic acting and hoped the film would mark a big turnaround in his career. K. Balachander wrote in a letter of appreciation to Mahendran, "[A]n intelligent filmmaker has come to the cinema world. Silence rules in many places in this film which deserve appreciation". Mullum Malarum attained cult status in Tamil cinema. It
7070-532: The following day. Later that day, Kali corners Murgesan, a local grocer who is known for flirtatious behaviour, and offers him his sister's hand in marriage. An engagement ceremony for Murgesan and Valli is arranged. At the ceremony, Manga angrily interferes in the main ritual, which makes Kali furious at his wife. He physically assaults her repeatedly, but Manga remains firm in her opposition. The next day, Manga convinces Kumaran and Valli to marry without Kali's knowledge, but he accosts their wedding party on its way to
7171-413: The formulaic Tamil cinema conventions. It was only after Venu Chettiar of Ananthi Films approached Mahendran with an offer that he pitched Mullum Malarum , describing it as a brother and sister story. Chettiar accepted the story without listening to it fully and wanted Mahendran to both write and direct the film. Under the assumption that Chettiar had only accepted due to his belief that Mahendran would make
7272-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
7373-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
7474-456: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
7575-426: The mainstream Tamil cinema, which he criticised for its obsession with commercial success, routine melodrama , excessive dialogues, duets and a typical climax. He decided to take a sabbatical from screenwriting, but was under constant pressure from film producers to write for them. It was then that Mahendran began soliciting novels to adapt, one of which was Uma Chandran's Mullum Malarum (1966). First serialised in
7676-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
7777-456: The novel, in Mahendran's screenplay Kali loses his arm when it is run over by a truck. Additionally, the novel ends with the deaths of Kali and his wife Manga, which Mahendran did not include in his screenplay. Upon completion, Mahendran did not immediately pitch his story to investors, but instead "quietly filed it away", as he believed that no producer would want to produce a film that lacked all
7878-531: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
7979-551: The past two decades. Several Badaga have become officials in various parts of the Indian Government. Former Lok Sabha MP, the late Smt. Akkamma Devi , was the first Badaga woman to graduate from college and represented the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency from 1962 to 1967. Belli Lakshmi Ramakrishnan M.A. was the first Badaga woman post graduate in social work, and went on to be the first woman gazetted officer to serve in
8080-511: The performances of Rajinikanth and Sarath Babu, along with Balu Mahendra's cinematography and Ilaiyaraaja's music. The reviewer also praised Mahendran's filmmaking skills and the fact that he told the story in a sharp manner without long dialogues, likening the film to Kurinchi flowers due to their rarity and rating it 61 out of 100. After watching the film, M. G. Ramachandran —the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu —told Mahendran that he had no words to express his happiness, and that Mahendran set
8181-402: The possibility of filming it with Kali saying those words without Kumaran present, but Sarath Babu ultimately appeared. After watching the film's double positive, Chettiar was perplexed by the lack of melodrama and lengthy dialogues, since he hired Mahendran as director due to his success as a dialogue writer and did not expect such a visually-focused film. At that time, Mahendran had yet to film
8282-415: The rest of my life. And it is with that pride and arrogance that I give my permission for my sister to marry". Writing for Frontline , Venkatesh Chakravarthy noted that the film ends with Kali relenting to Valli's desire to marry the man she wishes but not before he tells Kumaran that he still dislikes him, "which makes the film open-ended with a feel that life goes on". Mullum Malarum ' s soundtrack
8383-609: The same name, which was serialised in the Tamil magazine Kalki in 1966. Mullum Malarum tells the story of Kali (Rajinikanth), a winch operator of a cable trolley who dotes on his sister Valli (Shoba) since they were orphaned, and clashes with his boss Kumaran (Sarath Babu). Mahendran read only part of the novel, and developed the screenplay as he wanted, making a visually-focused film without formulaic Tamil cinema conventions he disliked such as melodrama, overacting, excessive dialogue and duets. Since Mahendran had no previous directing experience, cinematographer Balu Mahendra , who
8484-465: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
8585-508: The temple. Kali accuses his sister of abandoning him because of his handicap. Valli is filled with guilt and rushes into his arm. Kali reminds the onlookers that he remains the most important man in his sister's life. Although he still dislikes Kumaran, Kali's self-esteem is restored, and he offers his blessings for the marriage. Despite the success of his projects in the 1970s including Thangappathakkam (1974) and Aadu Puli Attam (1977), screenwriter Mahendran had become disillusioned with
8686-666: The thorn and flower in the film; he characterised Kali as an "angry young man with a kind heart" who does not admit mistakes, despite having committed acts such as breaking car headlights and allowing people to ride the trolley, in violation of the powerhouse's rules. He noted that films like Mullum Malarum stereotype the poor as "all that is pristine and traditional", and leave the "overall socio-economic system" which made them poor unchallenged, but within this system, "the hero will be 'richer' in terms of his moral uprightness". Journalist Kavitha Muralidharan wrote that most of Mahendran's films show characters with contrasting personalities, citing
8787-475: The title Mullum Malarum can be interpreted in two ways: "the thorn and the flower", which describes Kali and Valli; and "even a thorn will bloom", which foreshadows how Kali softens at the end. Mahendran considered the latter to be the real meaning of the film's title. S. Rajanayagam, author of the 2015 book Popular Cinema and Politics in South India: The Films of MGR and Rajinikanth , described Kali as
8888-614: The truth. Even today they place great reverence in Sri Mariamman: in April they celebrate a car festival at the Sri Mariamman temple in Ooty when they pull the car with the image of Sri Mariamman to their music and dance. The Badaga language is spoken by the Badaga community. The language is closely related to Kannada. LACITO in Paris houses numerous varieties of Badaga stories and songs collected over
8989-456: The usual hero-heroine dancing into the film because he thought it was like "watching two drunken monkeys dancing". Instead, he allocated music to the background when the lead characters expressed their emotions. Since Mahendran had no previous directing experience, Balu Mahendra, who was already an established director, assumed responsibility and responded to Mahendran's suggestions for screenplay, dialogue, camera angles, casting and editing. He shot
9090-405: The village, he operates a winch for a cable trolley which ferries employees to work. The powerhouse's new divisional engineer, the rule-abiding but fair Kumaran, notices Kali offering free rides to unauthorised townspeople. When he orders the passengers out, citing rules of operation, Kali becomes angry and stops the trolley half-way downhill. Kumaran shrugs off this act with a knowing smile. On
9191-517: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
9292-526: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
9393-425: Was a breakthrough for Rajinikanth as an actor and a milestone of Tamil cinema for focusing prominently on visuals and realism without the formulaic Tamil cinema conventions that Mahendran disliked. Mahendran continued following this style in all his later films. According to K. Balamurugan of Rediff.com , the film established that Rajinikanth "can be a director's actor too" and widened his fan base "from youngsters to
9494-599: Was already an established director, assisted him with the screenplay, dialogue, camera angles, casting and editing. Principal photography lasted for about 30 days, taking place primarily in Sringeri , Karnataka , though some scenes were also filmed in Ooty , Tamil Nadu . The film was edited by D. Vasu, and the soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja . Mullum Malarum was released on 15 August 1978. Although it opened to tepid box-office earnings, positive reviews from critics and favourable word of mouth in later weeks helped make it
9595-586: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
9696-630: Was composed by Ilaiyaraaja , with lyrics by Panchu Arunachalam , Gangai Amaran and Kannadasan . Unlike most Tamil films of that time, the film does not include any duets. The song "Adi Penney" is set in the Carnatic raga known as Madhyamavati . "Raman Aandaalum" is set in Mayamalavagowla , and "Senthazham Poovil" is set in Bowli . "Maan Iname", sung by Ilaiyaraaja, does not feature on the soundtrack. Elements of "Raman Aandaalum" were later used in " Machi Open
9797-528: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
9898-562: Was eventually cast as Kali's sister Valli. Mahendran wanted Kamal Haasan in the role of the engineer Kumaran, but he declined, citing scheduling conflicts; the role went to Sarath Babu . Mullum Malarum was filmed on 35 mm ORWO colour film. It was shot primarily in Sringeri , Karnataka , with additional filming in Ooty , Tamil Nadu ; principal photography lasted about 30 days. Chettiar initially refused to let Mahendran shoot in Sringeri, citing financial constraints, but Mahendran's friend Pazhaniappan convinced Chettiar and agreed to pay for
9999-544: Was screened at the 1979 International Film Festival of India as part of its Indian Panorama section. Mullum Malarum was well received at the time of its initial release, with commentators applauding it for establishing Tamil cinema as a "visual medium". The writer of a 25 August 1978 review in The Hindu appreciated the film for not having the "usual formula of fights, duets, intrigues and cabaret dances". The reviewer further noted that Rajinikanth showed "his mature artistry in
10100-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
10201-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
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